The Middle
by TheLostMaximoff
Summary: After an argument with Lance, Kitty finds comfort from an unlikely source.


The Middle

By TheLostMaximoff

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. I recently finished re-watching the entire series and felt like writing this. R/R.

It was happening again. Wanda Maximoff sighed and kept her eyes glued to the book she was reading. She was at least thankful that she was in her room and could block out the sounds of the argument. She grumbled as the Brotherhood house shook, usually a sign of impending doom. Without giving it a second thought, she hexed off the tremors. Lance and Kitty were fighting again. Though it wasn't a very frequent occurrence, it wasn't anything new either. Most of the time, Wanda just ignored the star-crossed couple. She admitted to being impressed with Kitty's ability to stand up to Lance when necessary but it still wasn't any of her business what went on between them. Unfortunately, with the way they argued it became everyone in the house's business.

Wanda heard the voices die down and then the sound of angry fleet clomping on the wood floor. She knew all the sounds of anger very intimately. It was so weird how people drew so much attention to themselves while they were angry. They projected an image that said to stay away but they made so much noise that it forced everyone to notice them. Now that she had gotten better with her temper, Wanda could see things that she couldn't before. The clarity was a welcome change although it took her forever to admit it.

Wanda was about to go out into the hallway and deal with the two lovebirds but it seemed that one of them was going to be impatient about it. She cursed under her breath as the silent sanctuary of her room was violated by an intruder coming literally through the door. Wanda glared at Kitty Pryde and the X-girl squeaked in return, the sound akin to a frightened mouse once it realized it had been seen by a cat.

"I'm like so sorry," apologized Kitty. "Geez I have like no manners. I just was so angry and didn't watch where I was going and I do this all the time at the mansion and . . ." She stopped when she noticed that Wanda wasn't reacting to her words, simply staring a hole through her.

"It's okay," admitted Wanda once the initial anger faded. "That sounded pretty bad out there. If you need a few minutes to calm down then you can do it in here. Trust me, all the boys know not to come in here if the door's locked."

"You sure?" asked Kitty. "I mean I can totally leave if you want."

"If you want to take your chances out there then suit yourself," said Wanda indifferently, her eyes returning to her book.

Kitty looked to the door and weighed her options. Lance had told her once that Wanda had calmed down ever since things with her memories had worked out. Still, Kitty didn't know if she should linger where she wasn't wanted. She had seen Wanda's powers in action enough to know that she wasn't someone you wanted as an enemy.

"Uhm, what're you reading?" she asked as she casually walked over to Wanda and let her eyes drift to the book. "Oh hey, I liked that one."

"You've read this?" asked Wanda, arching her eyebrow in surprise at Kitty's statement. She never figured she would have even the slightest thing in common with Kitty.

"Rogue let me borrow it one time," explained Kitty. "I mean it's not really my style but I thought it was good."

"Oh." Wanda couldn't get out much more than that due to still trying to wrap her brain around the fact that she and Kitty had the same opinion about something.

"So I like guess you heard me and Lance."

"I think the whole house did but really it was nothing. Compared to some of the tantrums I've thrown, that wasn't anything we couldn't handle."

Wanda put her book away after marking her place and then looked at Kitty. She had never gone to public school so her only frames of reference were television and books. She could still guess Kitty's type though. Perky, popular, sunny disposition, always smiling. Wanda sometimes wondered if she would have turned out that way had it not been for the asylum. Maybe she never had a chance though. Maybe she was just screwed up from the very beginning.

"Can I like talk about it with you?" asked Kitty.

Wanda involuntarily shuddered at the mere mention of what she assumed would be "girl talk". It made her skin crawl and she had to restrain the impulse to hex something. She looked at Kitty and could see something in her eyes, something that said she just wanted someone to talk to. Wanda could remember that look in her own eyes. She would see it in the mirror often and then watch as that longing for an emotional connection with others was covered up by her rage. Maybe she and Kitty weren't so different sometimes.

"Yeah but I feel like I should warn you that I probably suck at this," said Wanda.

"We're just really different," explained Kitty. "Like I dunno, we don't even live in the same world or something. I mean he's nice and I do love him but he's had such a hard life."

"We all have," reminded Wanda.

"Well not me," said Kitty. "That's the point. I just feel like we'll never really fit with each other."

"You probably won't," said Wanda.

"Boy, you really do suck at this."

Wanda rolled her eyes. "No, that's kind of a good thing. All of the people in this house are screwed up. We're broken and maybe we need people in our lives who aren't like us. Maybe having those people in our lives gives us a reason to fix ourselves."

"That totally makes sense," admitted Kitty. "I dunno, I just wish everybody would just let us be together and not judge us. Does it really matter if I'm more normal than him or he's had a harder life than me? Who cares, you know?"

"I'm not really in a position to pass judgment on other people," reminded Wanda. "I know what the people at the mansion say about us, Kitty, but I'd like to think we're not so terrible as we're made out to be."

"You guys really aren't that bad," confirmed Kitty. "I mean yeah your brother's kind of a jerk sometimes, no offense or anything."

"None taken at all," said Wanda, almost laughing at Kitty's assessment of Pietro. "Just be glad you don't have to live with him."

"Really though, you guys are pretty cool."

Wanda looked at Kitty and realized that under normal circumstances there was no way a girl like her would ever come anywhere close to being friends with a girl like Kitty. Her life had never been lived under normal circumstances though and she had long since stopped wishing for it to be that way.

"I guess," she finally said.

"Hey, Wanda, there's something I like always wanted to know. When we were going to fight Apocalypse, why did you come with me when the others didn't?"

Wanda thought about it for a few moments. She had never given it much thought before. All of the members of the Brotherhood were selfish and reckless or at least that was the perception they gave off to the rest of the world. If that was the case then it made no sense why they would be eager to jump into the fire for a bunch of people who didn't even like them. Yet even that wasn't the real perspective on any of them. Wanda meant it earlier when she said she knew what the X-Men thought of her and the boys, even after they had saved the world alongside one another. The Brotherhood would always be just a group of deadbeat kids in the eyes of not only the X-Men but the general public as well. People could change though. Wanda knew that and she knew that if more of the X-Men got to know the Brotherhood the way Kitty was getting to then maybe they would see things differently. Of course that would also mean that the reverse was true, that if the Brotherhood got to know the X-Men more intimately then maybe they would see that those who lived in the mansion weren't so different from them. Maybe in the end there was a nice middle ground between being a hero and being a villain.

"I don't know," admitted Wanda in answer to Kitty's question. "I mean part of me says it was a subconscious desire to fight my father again and I guess that's true. There's more to it though. I just couldn't let all those people get hurt or possibly die. I may be a lot of things but I'm not a monster, at least not anymore."

"I can't imagine the kind of stuff you've been through," said Kitty. "It must've been totally awful for you."

"I get by," responded Wanda with a shrug, shoving the thoughts of her father to the back of her mind with practiced ease. "I have the boys to help me get out of bed when I can't do it on my own."

"Hey, I totally want you to know that you have me and some of the others too," said Kitty. "Seriously, I bet it gets kinda lonely being the only girl in this house. If you ever need some girl talk, call me or Rogue or somebody else at the mansion. We're not so bad."

"Not all the time anyway," admitted Wanda with a rare smile.

There was a knock at Wanda's door and it didn't take a genius to figure out who it probably was. Wanda nodded to Kitty that she could open the door. Kitty did so and found Lance standing on the other side, studying the floor before casting his eyes upward to meet hers.

"I'm an idiot and I'm sorry," he apologized. "Can we maybe talk this out?"

"Yeah and I'm sorry too," said Kitty.

"If you two are going to kiss then do it in the hallway," interrupted Wanda. "I have an image to protect."

Kitty shot the Scarlet Witch a grin which Wanda actually returned. The Brotherhood member watched the couple move into the hallway, Kitty closing the door behind her. Wanda locked the door with her powers and picked up her book. She thought about Kitty's offer and realized that it was nice to have another girl around the house. Maybe there was more to all of them than what they presented to the world. Certainly Wanda had come to realize it was true for herself and she suspected it was true for everyone else as well. Everyone had their own molds that they were trying to break out of. They weren't defined by the labels they were forced to carry around with them. The world had its opposing forces but through her time with the Brotherhood, Wanda Maximoff had learned that most people just fell somewhere in the middle of it all. She decided that she preferred it that way.


End file.
